Yep, that’s me crossing the finish line first at the US National Championships that were held in Bend, OR (on my dad’s birthday, too!). A week later it is still hard for me to believe that I was the one who pulled on the stars and bars jersey that evening at the awards ceremony. It’s hard for me to explain all the thoughts that we going through my head after I had crossed the finish line because, like Ben, I was in total disbelief. I don’t win many races, much less one of the biggest ones all year, and especially not one for which I get to wear a special jersey for an entire year! Whoa. When asked how I felt after the taking the biggest win of my career, my answer was, “now I really know what people mean when they say they are speechless and that it will take a long time for it all to sink in”. How true that is and still is.

On that day any one of my teammates could have been in my position. Any one of my teammates could have ridden across that line first. The fact that they had faith in me to get the job done is special, very special. The team rode a fantastic race that day and I am fortunate that I made it into the winning break. And I’m ecstatic that I didn’t screw it up. Whew.

The numerous emails, texts, and FB messages that I received after my win were awesome! Each and every “congratulations”, “well done”, “well deserved” will stick with me always. And I can’t say thank you enough to all my friends and family who have supported me through the years and to Ben who has sacrificed so much to allow me to do what I love to do day in and day out.

So, now the team has several weekends of crits lined up to wrap up the season. First off is the Presbyterian Hospital Invitation Criterium in Charlotte, NC, Saturday night and Hanes Park on Sunday. The following weekend is the much anticipated Crit Nationals in Downers Grove, IL. There we’ll be working hard to keep the stars and stripes in the team. Brooke held the road title before me and she is the current national crit champion so we want to bring that jersey back to the team as well!

Time to roll. Lots to do today before heading to Boulder tonight for the Gomez concert.

Ciao
MM

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 7:11 am and is filed under daily life.